


From Scratch, We Built Our Love

by TheTruthAboutLove



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Experimenting with snacks, F/F, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Swiss Army Knife, Talks about baby dinosaurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-13 06:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7966651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTruthAboutLove/pseuds/TheTruthAboutLove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>“I'm experiencing an increasing heart rate, body temperature and sweat on my extremities accompanied by a decreasing salivation and ability to think properly when I'm near one particular person, as well as an inability to think about anybody else when I'm not.” </i>
</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Erin's hopeless crush on Kevin starts to fade the more she spends time with Holtzmann, they build things and eat weird snacks and go on sneaky errands. But Erin loves every second of it. That's how she falls in love without even noticing. By the time she does, everybody else has it figured out already.</p><p>This is full of bad jokes and pointless experimenting on snacks. A light and (hopefully) funny story of how they fell in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Scratch, We Built Our Love

Erin was entering the fire station when she heard a loud chorus of voices counting up.

“One hundred and forty-nine! One hundred and fifty!”

A general cheer erupted while she walked into the make shift living room, she spotted Patty, Abby and Kevin cheering loudly at Holtzmann, who was sitting on the couch.

“What are you guys doing?”

Everybody froze as they saw her and as the blond turned towards her she understood why. “Oh my God, are those skittles?”

Holtz's mouth was almost exploding with the little candies she stuck into it. One hundred and fifty skittles, she supposed, according to the loud chanting she walked in to.

Holtzmann started chewing frantically.

It was only then that Erin spotted the abandoned bottles of vodka on the table.

“Guys, I was gone for two hours to meet the mayor. How can you possibly have gotten drunk enough to challenge Holtzmann to put one hundred and fifty skittles in her mouth?”

“We didn't” Abby explained. “She told Kevin she had done it before and I told her it was not physically possible and she said 'watch me'” she poorly imitated the younger woman's voice. “And started shoving them in her mouth” she finished, hiding a little hiccup.

Erin looked at them, their adorable guilty expressions and tried to hid a smile.

“You guys could have at least waited for me” she told them, discarding her coat and heading towards the couch.

“I'll get us another bottle since I did lose that bet” Abby said, motioning to Kevin with her head. “Come on, we have to go to the store down the block so while we're there we can pick up some groceries too, can you carry the bags?”

“Sure” he said with his usual chipper smile and followed Abby.

“Stay safe” Erin said towards them. “I wouldn't want you to pull a muscle” she told Kevin with an awkward smile just before they reached the door.

After they were out she sighed and collapsed on the couch.

“That was painful even to watch, girl” Patty snorted. “Since it's the middle of a Friday afternoon, I'll head home to my family, alright? See you Monday morning, weirdos” she said, collecting her coat and heading towards the door.

“How did you fit _that_ many skittles in your mouth anyway?” Erin asked as they were left alone in the fire station.

Holtzmann leaned in and whispered very quietly, so much so that Erin had to lean in herself a bit to be able to hear her.

“I may have accidentally cheated” she disclosed.

Erin faked a gasp. “How?”

“It wasn't on purpose, but around one hundred and fifteen, some of the skittles just went down my throat and since nobody noticed I didn't say anything.”

“You swallowed the skittles _whole_?” Erin started snorting, but that quickly turned into a full blown laughter.

“ _Some_ of them” Holtz pointed out. “I'm thinking, ten. Twenty, tops. They just went down and since I didn't chew they didn't notice. And my mouth was too full to say anything.”

Erin kept laughing even louder.

Their engineer was really something else.

After several minutes, both their laughs subsided.

“So, what's the deal with Kevin, anyway?”

Erin shrugged. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you're clearly into him. Ask him out.”

“No, I couldn't- I can't do that.”

“Well if you plan on waiting until he notices you fancy him, you're going to start dating him when you're ninety-three. Trust me, I did the math on that one” she said, reaching for the remaining skittles on the table.

“Oh, no. No more of these for you, today. You're going to be on a sugar high as it is and we don't need to make it worse” Erin said, taking the box from her hand.

Holtz made a face, but didn't protest.

“I don't think he's into me, or he would have already asked me out.”

“What?” Holtz asked, drawing out the 'a' of the word for emphasis. “You're brilliant, beautiful, smart, funny and a really great dancer. If he doesn't like you, well then, you know, he's loss. I know it's a common saying but it's the truth.”

“It's just a physical infatuation. It's going to go away soon enough.”

Holtz just smiled.

They moved into the station just a week before, it was their first weekend when all was settled and unpacked and even if Patty was away and Kevin wasn't moving in, they felt like everything was finally falling into place.

Erin was distracted from her thoughts when she heard Holtmann snort beside her.

“What?”

“It's just funny. A physician with a physical infatuation.”

Erin smacked her arm but couldn't help her laugh.

“Your jokes are terrible.”

“You'll start to love them someday.”

Erin felt like she already did.

  


They spent the evening watching a movie and the next two days catching up on their respective research, nothing much.

Monday morning rolled around and Erin was on the ground floor filling her mug with fresh made coffee, when Kevin walked in.

“Good morning, boss!” he greeted her enthusiastically, walking by to go sit at his desk.

“Hi, Kevin. Nice” she tried to think of something that wasn't purely physical and that he didn't wear everyday. “Glasses.”

It was the only thing different from the usual about him, the fact that he hadn't shaved that morning.

“Thanks. Holtz gave me a pair with lens, I can't hear as well as before, but I do see better. That woman is really a genius.”

Along with that statement, Erin felt her attraction for Kevin hit an historic rock bottom, at eight-point-five out of ten. Nine tops, not a decimal more.

“It is kind of the whole point of wearing glasses, they are built to-” she stopped herself at the blank stare she was receiving from the man at the desk. “I'll go back to work.”

She smiled and he smiled back, as she moved to her desk on the first floor and started working on her computer, trying to finish one of her articles.

But just as she was getting ready to start, a noise distracted her. It was a sliding noise but she couldn't quite pinpoint where it was coming fr- _oh_.

Holtzmann halted her descent on the fire pole to nod in Erin's direction, salute her with only two fingers and wink at her with a bright smile, before loosening her grip a little to resume sliding down, getting to the ground floor.

“So now we're using that” Erin whispered.

After some ruffling sounds downstairs and the unmistakable noise of someone running up the staircase, Holtzmann came at an halt at her door frame.

“Come here often?”

Erin raised her eyes to arch an eyebrow at her.

“We literally live here, Holtz.”

The blonde grinned and winked.

Erin tried to smile back, but it didn't quite reach her eyes.

“What has your – I'd imagine plain black and boring – panties in a twist on this fine morning, doctor Gilbert?”

She opened her mouth to counter the affirmation about her underwear, but she knew it was stepping right into the trap of Holtzmann asking her to prove her she was wrong. So instead, she sighed again and leaned back in her chair.

“I might have” she managed. “Kind of” she sighed for the third time. “When did you make a new pair of glasses for Kevin anyway?” she decided to ask instead.

Holtz walked towards her desk.

“Are you kidding me, that boy is almost blind. I couldn't have him walking around our equipment with little to no sight. Those inventions are my babies. Nobody accidentally makes my babies explode except for me.”

Erin snorted and shook her head.

“Why, did he say something?”

“Yes, he said they improved his eyesight but muffled his hearing.”

Holtzmann snorted and put a hand on Erin's desk, leaning on it.

“So, did you ask him out?”

“No, of course I didn't.”

“Do you want me to ask him to ask you out? We're buddies, I could totally do that without him suspecting any involvement on your part.”

“I'm good, Holtz, thanks anyway. If he asks me out I want it to be totally spontaneous.”

“Gotcha. So what can I do to help improve your mood, my blood-pumping organ with injected glucose?”

Erin paused for a long moment.

“What?”

“Sweetheart.”

She snorted and rolled her eyes to cover the laugh that unwillingly escaped her lips.

Holtz smirked, seeing her goal of making Erin laugh had been accomplished.

“I'll see you later. Don't worry too much, small cake baked in a little aluminum container with frosting on top.”

Erin stared at the empty door frame for a handful of seconds after Holtz had disappeared upstairs, before actually understanding the name.

“Cupcake? She just called me-” she tried to suppress the smile on her lips and went back to her work, finally able to focus on her article. She didn't think about Kevin for the rest of the morning, even though her mind wondered about what other terms of endearment Holtz would twist just to amuse her next time.

  


Her worst moment of the week was by far when they were all having lunch together and Kevin mentioned having to train for his hide and seek tournament and Erin offered to help him training by sitting on him while he did pushups. 

Abby stared at her incredulously, Patty looked both confused and stunned, while Holtz looked really amused.

“It's a different kind of training” he explained simply. “More physiological than anything else” he pointed at his chest.

“I think you mean psychological, mate” Holtz patted him on the shoulder, moving his hand so his finger would point at his forehead instead.

Erin laughed awkwardly, avoiding Abby's outraged stare. When she finally looked her way, Abby mouthed at her the words 'law suit' for five times.

It was two hours after that, while she was sulking at her desk and Abby and Patty where also working on the same room at their respective researches on the other two desks of the floor, when she heard the same noise of someone sliding down the fire pole.

Holtzmann jumped off and strolled towards her desk with a secrecy demeanor, glancing at Patty and Abby distractedly before settling her elbows on Erin's desk in order to lean down towards her.

“I need your help with a very important thing” she glanced around again. “Meet me upstairs in three minutes” she whispered as if it was a war secret. “Make sure nobody follows you.”

She left abruptly right after she said that, saluting towards Patty and Abby and jumping on the fire pole on her way up. Erin tried not to ponder too hard how much muscular strength and fitness that required and how well built Holtzmann must have been.

She got up after a couple of minutes and headed towards the stairs and up on the second floor.

As soon as Holtz saw her she walked to her, grabbed her arm and gently pulled her towards her desk to make her sit down on a stool across from the desk and then sitting on her own.

“I'm doing a research.”

“Is this a ploy to distract me from my pathetic behavior at lunch?”

“Focus, this is an important question. This could decide the fate of our entire relationship, Erin, both professionally and personally.”

Erin's eyebrows shot up. 

“I wanted to ask you” she paused for dramatic effect. “If you were asked to chose, knowing you could only have one of this two things for the rest of your life and lose the other one forever” she paused again.

Erin picture an existential question.

Family or career?

Brain or beauty?

Love or friendship?

She looked back at Holtzmann, mimicking the seriousness of her stare.

“Pringles” she deposited a can of aforementioned chips on the desk. “Or M&M's?” her other hand came up, dropping a bag of said candy next to the salty snacks.

Erin took a moment to recover, looking from one thing to the other.

“Well, as a scientist, there is only one responsible and valid way to determine this with accuracy” she pointed out, reaching for the can and taking one chip, savoring the taste slowly. “Oh, this is good. These are really good.”

She hadn't had bagged chips in far too long. She reached for the M&M's next.

“I'm going to try one of these, but the bar is set pretty high right now. Oh, my God. These are the ones with the peanut in the middle.”

“Okay, you're chewing. You're not supposed to, you're eating it wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if you let the chocolate melt into your mouth” Holtz explained “and only after that you chew on the peanut, is like having two completely awesome snacks in one.”

Erin looked at her doubtfully and reached for another one, eating it like Holtz had suggested. She was right, it was even better. Then, an idea struck her.

“You know what is better than two snacks in one?” she asked in a whisper.

“A baby dinosaur” Holtzmann answered enthusiastically.

Erin frowned. “No, Holtz. Please never replicate gigantic and extincted creatures.”

Holtz playfully rolled her eyes and scoffed. “You're no fun, Gilbert.”

“I was going to say three snack in one” she pointed out, reaching for one chip and one candy and putting them into her mouth at once.

She chew on the chip, let the chocolate melt and then moved on to the peanut.

“This salty-sweet-salty again combo is intriguing.”

Holtz was looking at her like she just led her to a breakthrough in an experiment. She took a chip and a candy of her on, in complete awe, and proceeded to eat them like Erin had.

“I knew you were the right person to assist me in this experiment.”

Erin smiled softly.

“What are you working on?” she asked, looking at Holtz's desk.

They talked about her projects and current prototypes, then about Erin articles and hopefully future publications, while they kept eating the snacks combo. 

Erin realized, at the end of their day, she couldn't even remember the last time she laughed that much.

  


She was already at her desk when she heard the front door open and shut, a sign that Kevin had arrived and was taking place at his desk. She looked at the clock and decided she would wait for ten minutes, before casually making her way to the kitchen, refilling her mug, and then she would casually walk by his desk taking the long way towards the stairs to say hi. He would never suspect a thing, poor sweet, naive, Kevin.

So it was just barely five minutes after that when she got bored, drowned her coffee in one, long, sip, and then made her way downstairs.

She had barely the time to refill the mug before Holtz stormed in.

“Why, hello, Doctor Gilbert” the blonde made a wide gesture with her hand, while bowing to her in greeting. “I'm on my way out to a great quest. Would you like to accompany me?”

“I- sure, why not. Kind of a slow morning anyway” Erin told her, smiling a little.

“Great, let's go” she said in such a Holtz-like manner, Erin barely contained her laugh.

Holtz grabbed her arm and Erin had barely time to register she meant to go in _that exact moment_ , so she quickly drowned her coffee, put the empty mug in the sink and then followed her towards the car.

“Oh, hi Kevin” she shouted while they crossed the room opposite to his desk. He raised his head, smiled and waved.

“Bye Erin, bye Holtz.”

“Aye, mate” Holtz turned quickly, saluted him and then exited the door with Erin in tow.

Once they were into the hoarse and with the seat belt on, Erin realized she had no idea what she signed up for.

“Where are we going, exactly?”

“Brooklyn.”

Erin wrinkled her nose a little. “Why are we going to Brooklyn?”

“I need to meet my guy.”

“ _Your_ guy?”

“It's not what you're thinking. On a scale on one to ten, I'm nine and a half gay. Well nine point eighty-five probably. Of course, it's a purely theoretical assessment. If you consider only practical evidence, then I'm an eleven.”

 _You surely are,_ Erin thought, _you're eleven out of ten gorgeous and eleven out of ten smart and also eleven out of ten funny._

“No, I wasn't thinking _that_ ” Erin countered. “Your guy as in your drug dealer?”

“Oh. So maybe it _is_ what you're thinking.”

“ _Holtzmann_.”

“I'm kidding” she snorted. “He's just my delivery guy.”

“Is the stuff he delivers you legal?”

Holtz just kept staring ahead and driving.

“Then he's your dealer” Erin stated, feeling the two coffees she drank in a span of three minutes kicking in both at once.

“So, by the way you shouted at the sight of his face I gather your crush is still not progressing?” she tried to change the topic.

Erin knew what she was doing, but momentarily relented her questioning.

“I was just greeting him.”

“You sounded nervous.”

“I'm always nervous. I'm an eleven out of ten on the anxiety scale, remember?”

“Oh, you're an eleven on many scales” Holtz turned her head and winked at her, before turning again to keep driving, missing the blushing on Erin's cheeks. “What are you doing tonight?” she changed topic again.

“Nothing different. Why?”

Holtz smirked. “I might have something different to propose” she said wiggling her eyebrows, with a low voice that alone made Erin blush bright red.

Erin didn't quite get what she was talking about, until they reached Brooklyn and met with Holtz's “guy” in an alley. Erin didn't like where things were headed. Her drug joke was starting to look more and more plausible by the minute.

Until, after Holtz paid him, the exchange happened.

“Laser swords?”

“Star Wars Lightsabers.”

“And you couldn't buy these legally in an average toy shop, why exactly?”

The guy snorted, counting the money.

“Lady, each one of these costs three-hundred bucks.”

“Go to hell” Erin muttered under her breath. “I'm sorry, what? You just spent twelve hundred dollars to purchase us laser swords?”

“Lightsabers” Holtz said again. “And no, we drove here because my guy, Leon, sold this to me to one twentieth of the price.”

“I'm not confident he acquired those legally” Erin whispered after Holtz closed the trunk of the hoarse.

“Oh, hell no. All stolen.”

“ _What_?!”

She quickly followed Holtz back into the car after she saluted her friend.

“Chill, Gilbert, I'm joking. They're a little bit broken, but I'm positive I can fix them by tonight so, as promised, we can do something different.”

“You know, when you said that, I didn't exactly envision a laser sword fight.”

“Lightsaber.”

They were silent for a long minute. And then.

“What _did_ you envision exactly?”

Erin just scoffed and rolled her eyes.

  


They spent the rest of the day repairing the swords, Erin didn't notice the time go by, she didn't even go down to say goodbye to Kevin as she usually did. They just stayed and laughed and did pointless stuff all day, then they had a sword fight tournament – admittedly Patty had needed some persuading by the other three, while Abby had been enthusiastically swinging her sword since Holtzmann got it working again.

Erin was still mesmerized that this was actually her life nowadays.

Holtz's ideas made everything better, even her moody days that she would have spent sulking in her crush if she hadn't come up with some bizarre way to pass time, like that one.

It was pretty damn awesome.

  


“Put your right hand there” Holtz took her hand and positioned it in the right spot. “And your left here” she guided the other one. “Okay, now hold it very still as I weld it. This thing touch the floor and half the city blows up.”

Erin looked at her with wide and terrorized eyes.

“I'm kidding, it's not even powered yet. Just hold it as still as possible” Holtz snorted, pushing down the welding mask she had given Erin and then her own, over her goggles.

She was pretty quick. She put the blowtorch aside after that and pulled her mask off, then proceeded to take Erin's off her face, too.

She started dancing around while retrieving a screwdriver, and started lip-syncing.

_Who do you think you're kidding, he's the Earth and Heaven to you._

She pointed at Erin and then at the pavement below. The redhead was confused, then realized she was alluding to Kevin, two floors below.

_Try to keep it hidden, honey we can see right through you._

When the chorus came, Erin couldn't help but start actually singing while Holtzmann kept moving her hips and shoulders while still fixing the gun held still in Erin's hands.

“No chance, no way, I won't say it, no, no.”

Holtz eyes shot up when she heard Erin's beautiful singing voice, so she started singing too, without missing a beat.

“You swoon, you sigh, why deny it, uh-oh” her voice was angelic, Erin noted.

“It's too cliche, I won't say I'm in love” Erin said with emphasis and a roll of her eyes.

Both of them busted out laughing after that.

After a few seconds their laughs subsided and they found themselves staring at each other, closer than originally planned.

After a second too long, Holtz cleared her voice and lowered her gaze to the gun, resuming her work. Erin kept watching her closely.

“At least out loud, I won't say I'm in love” she sang quietly.

The song ended and the next one began, Holtz started dancing again and the light mood was immediately restored.

But Erin took note of her heart skipping a beat and the heat in her cheeks. A good scientist notes the signs and stores them waiting to have more data for a better conclusion.

“Hey there you are, Erin.”

“Abby, yes, you saw me coming up.”

“Well, that was hours ago, in the mean time Kevin arrived and you didn't even go down to greet him after ten minutes like you usually do, me and Patty didn't see you go downstairs and started to worry that you two might have passed out from some kind of smoke inhalation.”

Holtz snorted.

“Abby, my buddy, I'll have you know I'm deeply changed. I use masks now, when I weld.”

“Only when one of us is around, because you don't want us to get hurt.”

Holtz smirked and shrugged.

“Anyway, I'm going back to work. Shout if you're about to die” Abby told them, turning on her heels and heading down.

“You wanna go grab a coffee?” Holtz whispered, resuming her work.

“We have our cups right there on the desk.”

“I meant as an excuse to say hi to Kevin.”

“Oh. No, it's fine. I have to hold this gun very still or I'm told it could blow up half the city” she said, trying not to smile and barely managing.

Holtz glanced at her briefly. “It's fine, Er. You asked if you could help and I couldn't come up with something better before you changed your mind, but the gun actually stays pretty still if laid at the right angle.”

“I know, Holtz” she said softly.

Holtz stopped her movements and looked at her with surprise. Erin smiled a little.

“I basically asked you for an excuse to stay in the lab with you and you gave me one” Erin shrugged.

Holtz smirked.

“Well, you could come up with your books and your laptop and do some work of your own at my desk. There's plenty of space.”

“That would highly increase my production rate, it's not a bad idea.”

“Sweet. I'll clear one of my three desks for you, but not the bigger one. That one has drawers and I need those for essential stuff like Pringles. Maybe this one, would it be okay?” she pointed at the desk they were currently working on.

“Sure, but it's temporary, you don't have to make that much room.”

Holtz shrugged. “No biggie.”

“Okay then, I'll be right back.”

“See you in a bit, polysaccharides digested and regurgitated and then digested again by bees” Holtz smirked and winked, starting to make order and moving things to one of the other desks on the floor.

Erin blinked once. Twice. Three times. And then. “Honey. You called me honey.”

“I said it in a cooler way, tho.”

Erin snorted, getting up and walking downstairs.

When she got up again with her stuff, the desk was clean and waiting for her. It was just for one day, she told herself.

From that day on, that one became her desk and she never worked anywhere else.

Her productivity went back up, since she wasn't always sneaking up or away to see Holtz, and the fires and explosions were greatly reduced, since Holtz was extra careful with her on the lab.

The new arrangement worked. So they kept it.

  


They kept hanging out together while working for the next month, hardly ever separating. Erin didn't go downstairs to say hi to Kevin anymore, she saw him at lunch when they both went down to sit with the rest of the team for their meal. She rarely said silly things in his presence and hardly ever flirted with him in her obvious and heavy way.

The day came when Erin was having lunch with the mayor's assistant, to discuss further their funding, and they were left having lunch in the firehouse without her.

“I see you went back to your lens-less glasses, my mate” Holtz noted, watching Kevin.

“Ah, yeah, they were dirty so I throw them away a couple weeks ago.”

Holtz snorted, amused and not sorry of the time she spent building them and have them just thrown away.

“I didn't notice before.”

“Only Abby and Patty did, you and Erin are usually upstairs, you only come down to eat and are usually talking science with each other.”

Holtz smirked and shrugged. She couldn't exactly deny it.

“Erin didn't notice?” Patty asked, frowning. “That's weird, man. Up to a couple weeks ago the woman noticed even if you had a new scratch on your hand.”

“Mike Hat _can_ be quite affectionate” he reasoned regarding the cuts.

“Okay, this is ridiculous, I'm just gonna say it” Abby put her forks down and stared at Holtzmann after briefly glancing at Patty.

Holtz had a pretty clear idea where this was going and she was ready to deny everything they might say to her.

“Lez be honest” she said with a smirk, waiting for Abby's question.

“We think Erin might be possessed” Patty said.

“I don't” Abby corrected. “I think she died and you replaced her with a robotic version with no sexual impulses so we wouldn't be heartbroken.”

“No robot can dance like that, have you seen the thing she does with her wiggling fingers? Trust me, I've tried, and it can't be replicated.”

There was a pause.

“You tried to replicate Erin's fingers?” Abby asked, puzzled.

“Her dancing wiggling fingers. For _science_.”

“Oh, hell no!” Patty shook her head. “Are you two doing the _thing_ on top of your motor-oil stained desk? Holtzy that's unsanitary!”

“I'm not doing no _thing_ on top of anything with anyone!” she did a scandalized face. “...yet” she added, her expression shifting quickly to a smirk.

“Why would they willingly get motor oil on their clothes?” Kevin asked with is naive confusion.

“No reason” Holtzmann quickly answered. “In fact, we are _not_ ” she stressed the word, glancing at the two women in front of her.

“Is it related to what Patty said? Is Erin possessed by a ghost that wants to ruin her clothes?” he asked again.

“No, Kev, she only said that because Erin is acting weird. You didn't” Abby tentatively asked him “you didn't notice any changes?”

“Like what?”

“Like, she stopped flirting with you” Patty explained.

“Erin flirted with me?” he seemed genuinely surprised.

The three women exchanged looks.

“Yes, Kevin” Abby said slowly.

“That's great, isn't it? Why didn't you tell me? She's really smart and very good looking. I should ask her out” he said with his signature smile, getting up and walking towards the sink to deposite his plate there.

Patty and Abby looked at each other, while Holtz kept looking down.

“Holtzy, we know you had a thing for her since you met her, baby” Patty started, slowly.

“I'm really sorry Holtz, I didn't mean to push him towards her” Abby filled in after her, but Holtzmann was already getting up.

“It's fine. I'm happy for them. I'm going back to work.”

No joke. No smirk. No winking. Not even a simple smile.

She just got up and went away.

  


It was a couple of hours after, when she was building a new watch for herself, that Erin came back to the lab.

“Why are you banging a screwdriver into a piece of metal?”

“I'm building a wristwatch.”

“Could have fooled me” Erin told her playfully.

Holtz just grunted without raising her eyes.

Erin could immediately tell something was wrong.

“What happened?” she asked softly, leaning on the opposite side of the desk.

“Nothing. I'm just bored” she replied with no joy whatsoever.

She was _sulking_.

Actually, honest-to-God sulking.

“Well, if you're bored I have a new project I was thinking of starting. Want in?” Erin asked casually, after a moment of thought.

Holtz raised her eyes and stopped banging her screwdriver.

“But you'll have to use a rotatory motion with the screwdriver and not bang it like an hammer, because I'm very serious about this and I won't have it _screw_ it up. Ah! Got it?”

Holtz actually smiled a little at her terrible joke. And sighed.

“A'ight, I'll bite. What can I help you with, by using my screwdriver for it's God-intended and boring purpose?”

Erin leaned in further, whispering.

“I did some research. The world's biggest Swiss Army Knife has eighty-seven tools and one hundred and forty-one functions. It's nine inches long. Want to try and beat that?”

Erin could have sworn she saw Holtz starting salivating at her offer.

“You want us to beat the world record for the best Swiss Army Knife ever built?”

Erin smirked at Holtz's look of endearment.

“Are you up for it, Doctor Holtzmann?”

Holtz jumped up from her seat.

“You bet your glucose covered gluteus maximus, medium and minimus, that I do.”

“I-” Erin paused for a moment. “My-” she squinted her eyes. “My sweet ass?”

“You bet your sweet ass we're going to beat- no, scratch that, we are going to _crush_ that record. We are going to _destroy_ it. We are going to conquer its empire, burn its villages, and then we are going to _step on this record's grave._ ”

“Okay, Holtz. I get it. Now let's start planning it out.”

  


The project was finished a couple of days after that, but due to some ghosts and more pressing issues, the blueprints were left on Holtz drawer and never used.

“Hey, did you talk to Kevin since last Wednesday?” Holtz asked her almost casually on Saturday morning.

“Not really, outside of lunch. Why?”

Holtz shrugged.

“What?” Erin tried again just as Abby and Patty got into the kitchen with them. “What does Kevin have to say to me?” she asked louder.

“Oh, he just mentioned maybe he was going to ask you out” Patty told her casually.

Erin paused. “Really?” she frowned. “Why now?”

“Maybe he's hurt you're not aggressively flirting with him anymore” Abby joked, shrugging.

Erin scoffed. “I- I have no idea what you're implying. I flirt with him all the time! I'm not over him, I still like his- his manly hands and his short hair” she mumbled.

“His manly _hands_?” Patty snorted. “He can't even coordinate those with his brain, baby, there are better things to look at.”

“This is _outrageous_ ” Erin deadpanned. “I don't think about better hands that can build incredible weapons, that's crazy! Why would I stare at other hands, this is-” she gulped. She was starting to sweat, she could feel it.

“Well, you _do_ have at thing for hands” Holtz reasoned. “You always stare at mine while I'm building new weapons” she said casually, then proceeded to go up the stairs.

Abby and Patty exchanged a look.

“Erin, do you” Abby started with a low voice. “Do you like Holtz's...hands?” she tried to ease her into the idea.

“Shut up, Abby, I don't like Holtz! How do I- how do I even know you're not trying to confuse me so we won't notice that _you_ like Holtz” she accused, stammering on her words.

“Woah, you took a pretty big leap there, did you hurt yourself with that jump?” Abby snorted at her best friend's behavior.

“I have to go” Erin bolted towards the stairs.

“Bye” Patty called after her.

“I'm not bi, _you're_ bi” they heard Erin reply aggressively from the first half of the staircase.

  


Erin sat at her desk staring straight ahead for two hours before Holtzmann took a stool on the opposite side and sat down in front of her.

“Are you having a stoke or are you being possessed by a ghost right now?”

“Neither. I'm having an epiphany.”

“Well, it's nowhere near Christmas yet, so I'm assuming you mean the metaphorical kind” Holtzmann kept looking at her and when Erin met her eyes she didn't say anything, she just arched her brows.

“I'm experiencing an increasing heart rate, body temperature and sweat on my extremities accompanied by a decreasing salivation and ability to think properly when I'm near one particular person, as well as an inability to think about anybody else when I'm not.”

Holtz sighed a little.

“Erin, we all know you like Kevin. Like, we _all_ know.”

“I'm not talking about Kevin.”

“Oh. Who is it you have this crush on, then?”

Erin inhaled deeply. A crush. Of course, that was what it was, all signs were there.

“Holtz.”

“Yes?”

“No, the answer to your question is Holtz.”

“But I'm Holtz. Unless” her shoulder straightened and her eyes got bigger. “Is my evil twin back from hell?” she asked in a whisper.

“Can you be serious for _one fricking moment_?”

“Life's too short to be serious, we can't waste even a moment with such nonsense.”

“Please, Holtz.”

Gilbert's voice was tame and quiet and she sounded frightened. It was all so sudden and, in a strange way, it had always been there. It was a long time coming, really. Holtz noticed, during the weeks and months they spent side by side, Erin's attention shift from Kevin to herself, even though she always thought it was platonic or at least it was too soon for Erin to notice herself. She had feared that if Kevin asked her out, then her chance to win Erin's affection would be gone. But it was right there and then and she'd be damned if she wasted it.

“Erin, I'm not good with feelings and stuff. But I'm good at building things. And what I'd like to build with you is even more awesome that the world's best Swiss Army Knife.”

“Are you going to say a baby dinosaur?”

“Well, that _is_ better than our Swiss Army Knife. But it's not what I was about to say, which is even better than that.”

Erin couldn't help but smile back at Holtz's bright grin.

“I want to build a relationship with you. And also, that Swiss Army Knife we already have the blueprints of, if you're still up for it.”

“As long as you refrain from bringing back miniature extincted lizards.”

“I make no promises.”

They both laughed, while Holtz rounded the desk and took both of her hands.

“Would you like to go on a date with me, Erin?”

“I would love to, Jillian.”

Holtz beamed at her and leaned in to kiss her sweetly and chastely on the lips.

Erin had lusted after Kevin for a while, yes, but what she had with Holtz was different, it was deeper and it was stronger. Albeit she felt incredibly attracted to her body, she also fell for her mind and what she was capable of inventing and building. She fell for her sense of humor and the way she danced and lip-synced around the lab. For the way she was overly enthusiastic about everything. 

She adored every last detail of the woman that was in front of her.

She wouldn't have changed anything about her.

“I'm starving. Do you want some M &Pringles while we start building our knife?”

Anything at all.

  


  


**Author's Note:**

> Hope this made you smile! If you're Holtzbert trash come chat with me at http://thetruthaboutlovecomesat3am.tumblr.com/
> 
> Let me know what you thought about this!


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